Colin Firth

Colin Firth, in full Colin Andrew Firth
(born September 10, 1960, Grayshott, Hampshire, England), British actor especially known for his portrayals of aloof characters who gradually shed their reserve to become emotionally available, notably Mr. Darcy in a television adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1995) and the future King George VI in The King’s Speech (2010).

Firth’s parents were teachers, and the family moved frequently, living in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He acted in school plays, and in 1980 he was accepted to the Drama Centre London (now part of the University of Arts London and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design). Three years later he made his West End debut, portraying a character based on the British spy Guy Burgess in the play Another Country. In 1984 Firth starred in the film adaptation, though he was cast in a different role. Over the next decade Firth worked steadily, appearing in numerous stage, movie, and television productions. In 1988 he received critical praise for the TV film Tumbledown, in which he portrayed a Scottish soldier who is injured during the Falkland Islands War and endures a difficult recovery. The role earned Firth his first British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award nomination. Notable feature films from this period include Apartment Zero (1988), Valmont (1989), and Circle of Friends (1995).

Despite his numerous credits, Firth did not receive his major breakthrough until he appeared as Fitzwilliam Darcy in the television miniseries Pride and Prejudice. His portrayal of a repressed aristocrat whose haughtiness hides his growing affection for Elizabeth Bennet earned Firth a devoted following. A series of acclaimed films followed, including The English Patient (1996) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), both of which earned an Academy Award for best picture. In 2001 Firth garnered further attention as Mark Darcy in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary, an adaptation of Helen Fielding’s best-selling novel. That character, an uptight lawyer who falls in love with the title character (played by Renée Zellweger), was based on Austen’s Mr. Darcy. Firth reprised the role in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004).

After playing a slick Texas businessman in the small-town drama Main Street (2010), Firth took the role of a British intelligence agent suspected of treason in the 2011 film adaptation of John le Carré’s novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. In the dark comedy Arthur Newman (2012), he starred as a discontented family man who fakes his death and embarks on a journey under an assumed identity. He played a former World War II prisoner of war who goes in search of the Japanese interpreter who tortured him in The Railway Man (2013), based on a memoir. Firth then evinced the husband of a woman (played by Nicole Kidman) who loses her memory in the thriller Before I Go to Sleep (2014). He deployed his starchy diction and composure to comic effect as a spy in the thriller parody Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014).